The Walkmen Lisbon (Bella Union)
5/5
By: Stephen Maughan
A welcome return from perhaps New York's finest band, here The Walkmen lose some of the noise, distortion and melancholy of their early albums, but come heavy on the architecture of Lisbon (supposedly so beautiful it inspired both the title, and overall sound of the record) and deliver a record influenced by such legends as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the whole Sun Records heyday. Not that I suggest picking this up as a Christmas present for your grandparents, for musical pioneers though that bunch may be, and despite their shadow being cast over it, you’ll instantly recognise Lisbon as classic Walkmen. Play it loud for full effect, and chances are it’ll soon feature in your top ten albums of 2010 list.
'Blue As Your Blood' is a hymn to the aforementioned Sun imprint, and it comes across both experimental and rich in texture and language. Radio hit 'Angela Surf City' even got airplay in my local supermarket the other day, and goes to show The Walkmen can follow on their one universally adored hit ‘The Rat’ with another swooping tale of love and destiny so infectious you can't help but get caught up in its beauty. It’s a damn near perfect pop song with lyrics deliberately vague enough to ensure we can all provide our own meanings.
In fact, one of The Walkmen's strengths has always been their ability to be all things to all people. Few bands can coax music out of their instruments with such grace skill, while also being able to author lyrics so conceptually dense they could be taken as poetry. The broken hearted, the outcast and the hopeful are all spoken to, and self fulfilment and personal discovery are discussed on every track here. Check out 'Juveniles' ("You're with someone else tomorrow night, doesn't matter to me 'cause as the sun dies into the hill, you got all I need...") and 'Blue As Your Blood' (“The Lord came down and said to me throw off your worries and be at peace...”). Meanwhile, whilst 'Victory' is likely to be the most uplifting song you've heard in an age, contrast it with 'Woe Is Me', a great record to play when you've had your heart broken by the coolest girl in the neighbourhood.
Critics may argue Lisbon tries too hard to please too many people, that it’s eleven tracks seem somehow out of step with one another. One celebrates Sun Records, one leans heavily on jazz, there’s a break up song, a just fallen in love song... it doesn’t fit together quite as coherently as, say, Sufjan Stevens’ latest masterpiece The Age Of Adz does. It's confusing and abstract. But I'd suggest the strength of Lisbon is this despite of, or perhaps because of this mix of styles and techniques, we have absolute beautiful music and lyrics, poems even, in the style of Sonic Youth at their most light hearted, and the beat generation. That's about as high praise as it gets from me, and thank God the year of ‘The Rat’ has passed, and all eyes can be focused squarely on Lisbon.
The Walkmen - Lisbon: How I Made a Gloomy Day Downright Depressing by tjordan
Artists in this article: The Walkmen
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